Medical school is an intense and information-dense journey. With endless lectures, clinical rotations, and board exam preparation, staying organized is just as important as learning the material itself. 

Notability is one of the most versatile note-taking apps available. While many medical students gravitate towards apps like OneNote or Notion, Notability offers a uniquely intuitive experience that’s especially useful for those who prefer handwritten notes, seamless PDF annotation, and an easy-to-use interface.

In this guide, we’ll explore how to optimize Notability for medical school, from structuring your notes efficiently to integrating it into your daily study workflow.

Starting medical school or clinical rotations? Check out our must have phone apps to impress, succeed, and learn effectively in your classes and clinical rotations.

Why Notability?

Throughout high school and college, I primarily took handwritten notes, with severwl drawbacks. They were easy to lose or forget, difficult to organize, and cumbersome to search through, especially through loose sheets or notebooks. Additionally, there was an apparent lack of flexibility as you couldn’t add pictures, change colors, or seamlessly integrate diagrams from PowerPoint slides into your notes.

Eventually, I switched to typed notes for better organization and accessibility. While searching for information was easier and I could seamlessly add images and diagrams, I came across new challenges. Without writing by hand, retaining information was harder, and digital distractions made it easier to lose focus. Formatting notes efficiently also took more effort than I expected.

Notability is a powerful tool because it combines the best of handwritten and typed notes, integrates seamlessly with PDFs, and allows for audio recording, an invaluable feature for reviewing lectures and patient interactions. Here’s why many medical students swear by it.

• Handwritten Flexibility: Perfect for drawing diagrams, sketching anatomy, and annotating pathology slides.
• Audio Recording Sync: Record lectures while taking notes and replay them later. Your notes will sync with your recording.
• PDF Annotation: Easily mark up lecture slides, clinical guidelines, and research articles that you import into the app.
• Organization & Searchability: Unlike traditional notebooks, Notability lets you categorize notes and search handwritten text.
• Cloud Sync & Backup: Ensures your notes are always accessible across multiple devices.

These features are particularly beneficial for medical students who need to recall vast amounts of information quickly and efficiently. Instead of flipping through hundreds of pages of a traditional notebook, Notability lets you find key details instantly, allowing for a much more streamlined study experience.

Now, let’s dive into how you can use Notability to streamline your medical school experience.

Setting Up Notability for Medical School

1. Organizing Your Subjects

Medical school can be overwhelming, so staying organized from day one is crucial. In Notability, you can create dividers (folders) and subjects (subcategories) to keep your notes structured.

Potential Structure:

• Pre-clerkship Courses:
  • Anatomy
  • Physiology
  • Biochemistry
  • Pharmacology
  • Pathology
  • Microbiology
• Clinical Rotations:
  • Internal Medicine
  • Surgery
  • Pediatrics
  • OB/GYN
  • Psychiatry
  • Emergency Medicine
  • Family Medicine
• Board Exam Prep:
  • USMLE Step 1/COMLEX Level 1
  • Step 2 CK/COMLEX Level 2
  • Step 3 Resources
• Research & Extracurriculars:
  • Journal Clubs
  • Case Reports & Projects
• Residency Applications

Having a well-organized system prevents notes from getting lost and makes it easy to retrieve relevant material.

2. Annotating Lecture Slides & PDFs

Most medical schools provide lecture slides in PDF format. Instead of printing them out, import them directly into Notability and annotate them digitally.

Tips for Effective PDF Annotation

• Use the Highlighter Wisely: Instead of mindlessly highlighting everything, focus on key concepts, mnemonics, and clinical correlations.
• Write Summaries: At the end of each lecture, jot down a quick one-sentence summary to reinforce retention.
• Link Notes to Other Resources: If a slide refers to a disease you struggle with, add a hyperlink to a YouTube video, Sketchy, or First Aid page for quick review.
• Color Code Your Annotations:
  • Yellow: Definitions and key terms
  • Green: Pharmacology & Treatments
  • Blue: Pathophysiology explanations
  • Red: High-yield facts & mnemonics

One particularly useful approach is using Notability’s split-screen mode to keep your lecture slides open on one side while actively taking notes on the other. This allows for engagement with material without constantly switching between apps.

3. Handwritten vs. Typed Notes: The Hybrid Approach

One of Notability’s best features is the ability to seamlessly mix handwritten and typed notes in a single document.

Tips for Efficient Note-Taking with Notability

• Type Out Long Text Passages: This keeps your notes neat and searchable.
• Handwrite Important Diagrams: Anatomy, physiology pathways, and microbiology sketches are often easier to remember when drawn.
• Use the Apple Pencil for Quick Notes: During live lectures, jot down side notes or mnemonics that help with understanding.

If you’re using an iPad with an Apple Pencil, this approach works exceptionally well, as it mimics the natural feel of writing on paper while maintaining digital flexibility.

Handwriting can enhance retention, especially for visually-oriented learners. Some studies suggest that writing out information actively engages different cognitive pathways compared to passive typing, making it a useful tool for long-term recall.

Discover the best note-taking apps for medical students to stay organized, streamline your studying, and optimize retention.

4. Using Audio Recordings to Enhance Retention

One of Notability’s most powerful but underutilized features is audio recording. This is a game-changer for complex medical lectures and clinical rounds.

How to Use Audio Recording Effectively

• During Lectures: Record while taking notes. Later, you can tap on your notes and hear what was being said at that moment.
• During Clinical Rounds: If permitted, record key discussions with attendings (or summarize them immediately after).
• For Self-Explanations: Record yourself summarizing topics (e.g., “Explain heart failure pathophysiology in under 2 minutes”).

This technique is especially beneficial for auditory learners, enhancing recall significantly. Even if you’re not one, having recorded lectures readily available is always a valuable study resource.

5. Integrating Notability into Exam Prep

When preparing for board exams like USMLE Step 1, Step 2 CK, or the MCCQE, your Notability notes can serve as a powerful review tool.

Strategies for Effective Exam Review:

• Create a Master Notebook: Extract high-yield notes from lectures and organize them in a dedicated “USMLE Step 1 Review” subject.
• Use Search Function to Find Key Topics: Notability can search handwritten and typed text, making it easy to locate information across multiple notes.
• Summarize First Aid & UWorld Notes in Notability: Instead of passively reading, actively summarize key concepts in your own words.
• Sketchy & Pathoma Integration: After watching SketchyMicro or Pathoma, summarize their key takeaways in Notability.
• Flashcard Integration: If you use Anki, screenshot high-yield notes and embed them into your flashcards.

6. Syncing & Backup: Never Lose a Note

Medical students cannot afford to lose notes due to a device malfunction. Fortunately, Notability offers multiple backup options:

• iCloud Sync (Best for Apple users)
• Google Drive / Dropbox (Best for cross-platform access)
• Auto-Backup as PDFs (Useful if you want a non-editable copy saved regularly)
• Time Machine Backups (Mac Users): ensures you can restore previous versions of notes

Setting up automatic cloud backups gives you peace of mind, ensuring that even if your device is lost or damaged, your notes remain safe and accessible from anywhere.

Final Thoughts

Notability is an incredibly powerful tool for medical students, blending handwritten flexibility, typed note organization, and seamless audio integration into one platform. By using it effectively, you can stay organized, retain more information, and study smarter rather than harder.

Whether you’re tackling preclinical coursework, clerkships, or board exam prep, a well-structured Notability workflow will help you keep up with the demands of medical school while making studying more efficient.

By leveraging Notability’s features strategically, you can develop a personalized study system that maximizes efficiency and minimizes frustration. This can be the difference between feeling overwhelmed and feeling in control of your education.

If you haven’t already, try implementing one or two strategies from this guide and see how Notability transforms your study habits. Your future self (and your future patients) will thank you!

Check out our guides on setting up Obsidian, our top pick for typed note-taking, and mastering Markdown to keep your notes structured and organized.